POLITICS: Lobbyist Abramoff Indicted On Fraud Charges

In what could be the opening of a big can of worms for the Bush Administration, the Department of Justice has indicted Jack Abramoff, one of Washington's most influential lobbyists, and his former business partner, Adam Kidan on fraud chrages stemming from a 2000 purchase of a casino boat fleet in Florida.



This is going to get ugly, and may go all the way (or almost all the way) to the top.

I've dug a little deeper into this story and have found links to the Al-Qaida, the Gotti and Gambino crime families, and even to Karl Rove, Bush's right hand man.

It turns out that, according to TheRawStory.com (and a few other sources), the woman who answers the phones for Karl Rove also used to screen all the calls for Mr. Abramoff.

Additionally, according to an article that will appear in next weeks Newsweek edition, the reason they're doing this is to "pressure Abramoff to cooperate in a broader, D.C.-based probe that could touch members of Congress and Bush administration officials."

And, a key suspect in Mr. Boulis' murder (the guy that was shot to death in 2001), according to another news story, is Tony Ferrari - who has ties to convicted crime boss John Gotti. Not to mention the fact that Adam Kidan, one of the others indicted in this case, has ties to the Gambino crime family.

To top it off, according to an Associated Press story, Mohammed Atta (the pilot of the first plane to hit the WTC) and company had hopped aboard a SunCruz casino ship on September 5, 2001 - SIX DAYS before the 9/11 attacks.

Related News Links:
blogcritics.org
www.time.com
www.washingtonpost.com

Just to add to this story, another story just came off the wire about Abramoff's willingness to talk to authorities about the Boulis murder:

Washington Lobbyist Jack Abramoff, accused of federal fraud charges in a casino fleet purchase deal, is willing to submit to an interview with Florida investigators trying to solve the gangland-style murder of the businessman who sold the boats, Abramoff's attorney said Tuesday.

The lawyer, Neal Sonnett, said after a brief scheduling hearing in federal court that Abramoff had expected to meet with Fort Lauderdale homicide detectives shortly after the February 2001 slaying of Konstantinos "Gus" Boulis.

The interview never happened, Sonnett said, and now Fort Lauderdale detectives are expressing new interest in talking with Abramoff.

Source: www.gainesville.com.../20050816/APN/508160781

Looks like he might be working up some sort of plea bargin already.


[edit on 16-8-2005 by elderban]

layer after layer, keep peeling...

either the world is a lot smaller than we know... or there are more connections between these people than there should be...

A hijacker on a casino ship... hummmmm...
If i was the conspiracy type (what...who...me?) I would say that the casino trip was supplied as payment in advance...

the Karl-Abramoff connection doesn't surprise me, they both came from the same litter of pups...

and the Mob- government connection doesn't surprise me, I think they have been holding hands since JFK...

but the terrorist connection is scary... I will look into that...

Let us hope that someone doesn't put the kybosh on the plans for a full scale investigation... one threatening call could do it, so the victory is premature until the rich boy sings...

GOOD!!! the man is an arrogant son of a bitch with no regard for the law...that whole crowd from cheney the dick down to tom delaid and so many other of the oh so righteous are all involved in one huge circle jerk and the public ae the ones getting screwed. Gonna love watching this pig squeal, ya know honor among thieves and all that. The oh so much moral than thou conservatives my ample ass!!!

A hijacker on a casino ship... hummmmm...
If i was the conspiracy type (what...who...me?) I would say that the casino trip was supplied as payment in advance...

It has been stated in articles regarding the terrorists that they may have used the casino ships to launder money.

but the terrorist connection is scary... I will look into that...

There's a story on the AP newswire about it, but I can't seem to find it. It came out in 2001, shortly after the attacks.

Let us hope that someone doesn't put the kybosh on the plans for a full scale investigation... one threatening call could do it, so the victory is premature until the rich boy sings...

I'm sure if the Republicans get there way, this will go away quietly like many other things have since 2000.

Playing the political game is like playing chess, you always have to have a countermove for every move the opponent may make, and they usually do.

Doing more digging on this story, I have found out the following:

The FBI confirmed that TWO of the terrorists that were involved in the toppling of the World Trade Center were on the SunCruz vessel on September 5, 2001. This is during a time when SunCruz was under Abramoff's command.

elderban, keep me updated. this is quite interesting indeed.

i hope this makes a splash in any large media outlet and not suppressed like the karl rove leak which is barely being spoken of. this can lead to huge implications to what is going on in this country and the public must be aware of it.

Here's a link to a story that tells most of what went on in regards to Abramoff, Kidan, and SunCruz:

www.washingtonpost.com...

One of the things they left out, which I was able to uncover as well, was:

Adam Kidan sent a series of checks to Moon Over Miami Beach that total $105,000 for "catering services" and another series of checks totaling more than $145,000 made-out to Jennifer Moscatiello. Both Moon over Miami and Moscatiello have ties to the mob. These checks were made out right before and right after Boulis' "gangland style" murder. (Source: www.local10.com...)

I'm still digging.

The big media did put stories up regarding Abramoff being indicted, but that's about it. Nobody is really following it.

Originally posted by elderban
Adam Kidan sent a series of checks to Moon Over Miami Beach that total $105,000 for "catering services" and another series of checks totaling more than $145,000 made-out to Jennifer Moscatiello.

Just a point for those slow on the connection...
105,000 and 145,000 equal 250,000... an exact equal quarter million...
sounds like the right figure for a hit...

the mob bosses daughter seems to be running a catering company... funny, since you need a license for that.
and the moon over miami company...supposidly provided security for some sun cruz affair... wierd name for a security company...

it is funny how a company that never is open or answers phones, could do security for Suncruz casinos... (maybe more of a "protection" service than security)

Never is there that much "exactness" on these kind of contracts...
and the two totals are very suspect... it was almost like they were going to separate them as 100,000 and 150,000 .... but wait... that would look too obvious...
"Hey Joey... make sure they add 5 G's to the first payment and take it from the second one...we dont want no coppers sniffing this here thing out..."
probably thought they were really really smart...

but then... compared to some of the groups that investigate them... maybe they were... Journalists often make the break of info that gets the "coppers' on the right lead...
hopefully this gets solved...

[edit on 17-8-2005 by LazarusTheLong]

This whole thing seems to get more interesting by the hour...

Shortly after 9/11, Abramoff signed up as a lobbyist for this consortium of banks that operate according to sharia, or Islamic law. According to the National Journal (Aug 31, 2002), the consortium was created after the attacks as President Bush began cracking down on terrorist financing. Abramoff's job was to spread the word about Islamic banking practices and to refute claims that Islamic banks sheltered money used for terrorist networks. And if anyone needed a good PR man, it was the chairman of the General Council for Islamic Banks, a Saudi businessman named Saleh Abdullah Kamel estimated to be worth in the neighborhood of $ 2.6 billion, who was quickly the subject of intense government scrutiny over his possible ties to terrorist activity.

Source: auctionhouse.tpmcafe.com...

[edit on 17-8-2005 by elderban]